The French presidential hopeful has induced no secret of her admiration for Russias strongman leader, but her relationship with Trump is less clearcut

The week after Donald Trump won the US presidential election last November, Marine Le Pen was inaugurating the headquarters of her own election campaign in Paris, less than a mile from the Elyse Palace she hopes to move into soon.

The far-right, anti-immigration Front National leader had been the only French political leader to back Trump in his bid for the White House. She has also made no secret of her admiration for Russias president, Vladimir Putin.

Unveiling her campaign emblem, a blue rose, she said that her election as Frances president would form a trio of world leaders that will be good for world peace, resulting a worldwide motion that rejects unchecked globalisation, destructive ultra-liberalism, the removal of nation nations, the disappearance of borders.

Last month, Le Pen was in Moscow for a personal audience with Putin. A new world has emerged in these past years, she said. Its the world of Vladimir Putin, its the world of Donald Trump in the US. I share with these great nations a vision of cooperation , not of submission.

Clearly, there is ideological common ground between the three leaders: variations on a theme of nation-first politics, is supportive of economic protectionism and immigration controls, mistrust of international alliances and organizations such as Nato or the EU, and a rejection of globalism and the liberal consensus.

But Le Pens actual ties with the two leaders differ significantly. With Russia, at least, they go beyond the ideological to the personal and the practical. Her meeting with Putin in March was reported to be their first; but according to French investigative journalists, it is possibly their third.

Front National aides and MEPs have been to Moscow far more often and two ruling-party Russian MPs were honoured guests at the 2014 party meeting that re-elected Le Pen party leader with a 100% mandate.

In farther presents of sympathy, Le Pen has called for completely stupid EU sanctions against Russia to be lifted, said there was no intrusion of Crimea because it had always been Russian, and argued Ukraine had undergone a coup dtat.

Nor has the party been shy about accepting Russian money, on the grounds that no French bank will lend to it. The party borrowed 9m in 2014 from the First Czech Russian Bank( which subsequently lost its licence) and acknowledged trying 3m from Russias Strategy bank in 2016.

The FN has always denied the Russian loans had bought Moscow any influence with the party. Le Pen told Le Monde the relevant recommendations was ridiculous and outrageous, adding: So because we get a loan, that dictates our foreign policy? Weve held this[ pro-Russian] line for a long time.

There seems little doubt that for its part, Russia is attempting to influence the outcome of Frances presidential election, whose final round on 7 May will pit Le Pen against the independent centrist Emmanuel Macron. Current polls suggest she will lose.

Macrons campaign team confirmed they had been the target of at the least five sophisticated cyber-attacks since January is targeted at accessing sensitive data. Emmanuel Macron is the only nominee in the French presidential campaign to be targeted, the campaign said in a statement. Its no coincidence.

Lombardi was known to have held a fundraising party for the Front National the previous evening, and most of the efforts by Le Pens entourage in the US are so far believed to have been directed towards procuring much-needed contributions to party funds.

But Trump and Le Pen did not satisfy, staff from both sides have insisted. Nor did the Front Nationals European affairs consultant, Ludovic de Danne, or its US representative, Denis Franceskin, get to see Trump in November, when Lombardi invited them to Trump Tower for the election night party.

The FN representatives were told the president-elect did not have security clearance to come down to the foyer. But in pre-election statements to the Hollywood Reporter, Trump said there was no common ground to be explored with Europes far right and he did not want to establish confederations beyond the Atlantic.

Some of his backers are less reticent. Le Pen has fulfilled resulting Trump supporters including congressman Steve King, a Republican from Iowa who has courted disagreement for constructing incendiary remarks about immigrants.

Bannon told French website Radio Londres last summertime that he saw Marion Marchal-Le Pen, Le Pens niece, as the new rising star, and predicted Frances 2017 elections would be historic. Marchal-Le Pen has praised alternative media and said she would be delighted to work with Breitbart if it opened a Paris bureau, as it has promised but in so far failed to do.

The far-right nominee is also backed by a ruthless, highly organised and very popular web and social media campaign that echoes the successful online agitprop techniques used by Trumps alt-right supporters during the US presidential campaign. US-based far-right internet warriors are reportedly helping out by pretending to be French.

Le Pen herself, however, seems to think that if the Trump-Le Pen nexus is an inspiration for anyone, it is for the US president.